Saint Mary of Egypt, pray for us!
“Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for to such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Mark 10:14
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Volume 5, Issue 14
A Ministry of the
Orthodox Christian Network
How do you serve?
Have you ever tried really hard to
be first in line? Have you even pushed
people out of the way to get there? Even Jesus’
disciples made that mistake once!
Today’s Gospel reading tells us about two of Jesus’ disciples, who wanted Jesus to give them a
special place in his kingdom. They thought
Christ was going to be some kind of king on
earth, so they wanted to be close to the King!
After all, wouldn’t it be nice to be served, like a
Christ came to serve! Can
king and his helpers? You wouldn’t have to work we serve too?
so much. You could be entertained and fed and
you certainly would never have to clean your room!
But Christ told them that even He, Jesus Christ, the King of all, “came not
to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).
If even our Lord, Jesus Christ came to serve, we should also try to serve
too! That means looking out for other people first. That means thinking of
ways you can help people with their needs.
The Children’s Word is a weekly bulletin for Orthodox Christian young people. Copyright 2017 Alexandra Houck.
Email is orthodoxchildrensword (at) gmail.com. Find it each week at myocn.net.
Let’s try to think of ways that we can serve—not be served...at home, at
school, and all around us.
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Help Saint
Mary find her
way into the
middle of the
desert.
She wants to
spend her life
in prayer
What’s in the icon?
Sometimes you can read the whole life of
a saint just by looking at his or her icon!
This icon is kind of small, but along the
edge of the icon, can you see the different scenes from Saint Mary’s life?
In the first one, she is standing in front of
the doors of the church!
EVEN SAINTS CAN MAKE MISTAKES!
SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
Did you know that even saints
can make mistakes? Today we remember a very special saint who made A LOT
of mistakes.
When Saint Mary of Egypt was a young
woman, she did not even try to be a good person. She had many, many sins and didn’t even
care. But one day, she tried to go into a holy
church in Jerusalem, and she felt a force that
would not let her go in! She couldn’t see anybody pushing her out, but as hard as she
tried, she still could not enter the church.
St. Mary then knew that she had to change her life. She left Jerusalem
to live in the desert, where she lived for 48 years! She spent her time
there praying and asking God to forgive her. Finally, before she died,
she received Holy Communion from a priest who found her in the desert.
Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent, the day we remember Saint Mary.
We are coming to the end of the fast, Great Lent. Have you been trying hard to become a better Christian? Well, today, let’s all remember
that nobody is perfect. But God still wants us to try to be perfect, like
He is! St. Mary of Egypt is a great example of somebody who changed
her life so she could follow Christ.
We celebrate the nameday of Saint Mary today, the 5th Sunday of Lent.